


More Flies with Honey

by lizzledpink



Category: Tales of Berseria
Genre: Character Study, Crushes, Fluff, Gen, Infodumping, Pre-Relationship, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-29
Updated: 2018-03-29
Packaged: 2019-04-14 11:47:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14135433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizzledpink/pseuds/lizzledpink
Summary: Rokurou introduces Eleanor to his new favorite game, which, for some reason, involves Eizen.





	More Flies with Honey

**Author's Note:**

> As usual, the Tales games I like the least are the ones where I get unnecessarily and heavily invested in an OT3 that nobody ships. If you're just here for the characters, I appreciate it. Thanks as always for finding my typos, Glitz.

Eleanor lasted another thirty-two seconds before she began to fidget again.

She quickly stilled her hands, pressing them against her sides where, in theory, it would be that much harder for her to start twiddling her thumbs or quietly knocking her palms together. She looked around, desperately trying to find some distraction.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much happening. She had thought the plains were beautiful the first time she had come here, gazing out at tall, hilly rock formations with awe. But on a repeat trip, it was all just more of the same green grass, the same white flowers, the same dangerous beasts roaming around.

She felt one of her hands creeping up to a pigtail, fiddling with the tie, and yanked her fingers away from her hair.

“Hey, what’s up with you?”

Eleanor jumped nearly a foot in the air before realizing that Rokurou had snuck up behind her. “Don’t - don’t do that! And… what?”

“Just wondering. How are you doing?”

“I’m perfectly well, thank you.”

“You sure?” He gave an easy-going grin. “You seem a little tense.”

“Tense? I’m not tense.”

“Uh-huh.”

Eleanor leveled a quiet glare at him. “I’m not.” She glanced around for a moment. Laphicet and Velvet were walking together at the front of the group, both mostly silent with some kind of determination. Magilou was tormenting Bienfu to pass the time, while Eizen watched, or perhaps just used them as a convenient spot to stare at while he thought.

Nobody was paying much attention to them, bringing up the rear of the party train as they were.

“I’m… bored,” she admitted.

Rokurou put a hand on his chin. “Bored? Well, why didn’t you just say so?”

Eleanor scoffed, “I’m not going to whine about traveling when there are important matters at stake.”

“Really? That seems like exactly what you should do. If you’re bored, you know, that usually means that somebody else is, too.”

“Are you bored?”

“Not really,” he said. “I was going through some ideas for a flashy new arte in my head.” Of course he was, Eleanor thought to herself, biting back a smile at Rokurou’s predictability.

He looked around and frowned for a moment, and then began to dig around in his bag, looking for something. “That said, it does seem like we could all use a little lightening of the mood. Want to help me?”

“Help you?” Eleanor blinked. “With what?”

“My favorite game. It’s a little like fishing,” he said. He might have been smirking, but she wasn’t entirely sure. “Come on, I’ll teach you how to play it.”

“We don’t have time to stop and play a game,” Eleanor said, confused. “What exactly are you thinking?”

“Nothing too mean,” he said, grinning at her again. “Just trust me and play along, okay? Ask me questions. Play dumb if you have to. You’ll see what I mean.”

He took what looked like a small rock out of his bag. Eleanor looked at it curiously. There was some kind of fossilized imprint there - a circular, segmented line that curled its way around. “Oh, this looks neat!” Rokurou declared, raising his voice ever so slightly.

Eleanor saw Eizen and Magilou glance backwards. She looked back at Rokurou, confused, but willing to play along. “Uh… What is that?”

“Not sure. Some kind of fossil?” Rokurou continued. “It reminds me of some kind of snake, maybe.”

“I don’t know, I’ve never seen anything like it,” Eleanor admitted truthfully. “It doesn’t make me think of a snake, though… See how the segments get narrower?”

Rokurou looked thoughtful. “Huh, you’re right. Maybe it’s a really, really old snake that used to taper to a point.” He sounded honest, but there was a hint of humor that she couldn’t quite pindown. Was he lying, for some reason?

“Let me see that,” Eizen interrupted. He pulled a pair of distinguished reading glasses out from his breast pocket and slipped them on. Rokurou handed the fossil over with little fuss. As Eizen bent his head to inspect it, and fell into step with them, Rokurou looked over Eizen’s shoulder and winked at her.

Eleanor was hopelessly lost. Clearly he had saved this rock for some purpose, but she still didn’t understand what kind of game he was trying to play.

“Ha! This is no snake,” Eizen declared, shocking her out of confusion. “What you’re looking at here is a fossil of an ammonitic shell.”

“A… what?” Eleanor asked.

Eizen smiled, more than a little proud to explain. “Thousands of thousands of years ago, it’s possible that this entire area was underwater. During that time, there was a creature that lived in a shell like this. See how it spirals around a central point? Its main body would curl up into that space and use it as protection.”

“So snakes used to live in shells?” Rokurou asked. This time, Eleanor was _sure_ he was lying. Playing dumb, as he had put it earlier. What was the point?

“No,” Eizen barked, cutting him off coldly. “This isn’t related to a snake at all. The creature would actually be more like a modern-day octopus or a squid. Its tentacles would hang outside of the shell, flailing in the water to steer it. The shell is actually part of its body, as well.”

By now, even Velvet and Laphicet had turned around as they walked, listening with interest. Magilou was peering at the shell, though she kept her face in an expression of affected apathy, for whatever reason.

Was this the game? Rokurou had found something weird, and from it, Eizen had turned all the way around to talk about it, and the team was all listening.

Tentatively, she asked a question. She really was curious. “So, why don’t octopuses live in shells now?” She saw Rokurou grin at her behind Eizen’s back again.

“Probably for no particular reason,” Eizen said. “The species died out. Maybe its oceans dried up, or it was hunted to extinction. This one was. See the cracks in this segment, and another segment here? They aren’t by mistake. A predator with a massive jaw could probably take the shell and snap it apart, leaving the soft part of its body vulnerable. I bet what we’re seeing here are the cracks left by one of those predators.”

Rokurou made a small, intrigued humming noise. “I’ve heard of creatures living in shells, though. Isn’t there a kind of crab that does that?”

Eizen looked delighted with the tangent. “Yes, that’s true. Hermit crabs will find shells in a similar way, and live in them. However, there’s no biological relationship. There’s a closer relative of the ammonite in a modern sea creature known as the nautilus. I’ve never seen one myself, but a malak I once met studied the depths of the water and described it as looking more like a squid had outright fused with a spiraling shell.”

Eleanor watched this whole exchange, her eyes observing. Rokurou seemed a little curious, at least, but for the most part, he was watching Eizen talk, and not too concerned with what he was actually saying. And Eleanor even thought she understood why.

Eizen was… Well, he was a huge nerd. He loved this stuff. Every time Rokurou set him off on a new round of explanations, he seemed happier and happier to explain, proud of his knowledge and excited to pass it on. He had started explaining with a grumpy look on his face, for all that he actually seemed pleased to talk about it. By now, he was openly smiling, with a rarely-seen light in his eyes. He could be very handsome, she thought absently, when he shook off some of the weight of the Reaper’s curse.

Meanwhile, Rokurou looked a little excited, rather content with himself. It was a strange thing to notice. Most of the time, Eleanor thought only the promise of violence could shake him out of an apathetic, casual approach to things. It was nice to see him smiling and feel that there was something real to it, something other than an affected amusement, for a change.

It was maybe a little mean, to bait Eizen this way. But then, it was also fairly harmless. Rokurou wasn’t making fun of Eizen, really - he was using him, but only to lift everyone’s spirits and add a bit of interest to an otherwise completely dull walk. But wasn’t it still rude to manipulate him like this? Eleanor wasn’t sure how to feel about it.

“That sounds amazing!” Laphicet broke in, bouncing on the tip of his toes. “Can I see it?”

“Of course,” Eizen said, passing the fossil over to him.

“Keep it,” Rokurou added. “I was just curious. If you actually like that thing, you can just have it.”

Laphicet gasped, tracing the imprint of the shell with a finger. “It’s rougher than I expected.”

Eleanor tucked her hands behind her back, thoughtful, as Velvet instructed everybody to stay sharp, as the entrance to Stonebury was just up ahead.

Quietly slipping up to her side again, Rokurou nudged her with an elbow. “So? What do you think? Pretty fun, right?”

“It fixed my boredom,” she admitted, “but I don’t know. It feels a little wrong.”

“Does it? Well, that’s alright, as long as you don’t plan to spoil it for me.”

“I’m not saying I’ll interfere. I just don’t think your game is for me, that’s all.”

Rokurou shrugged. “Alright, if you say so.”

It was near impossible to catch Rokurou showing an emotion other than excitement, especially since he claimed he didn't really have any. But she could almost swear there was a little disappointment in his gait, the slightest sulky slouch, as he strolled ahead. And she felt a little bad, because it felt like she might have been the one to put it there.

-

It was almost a week later, as she and Eizen looked through a smith’s wares in Taliesin, when Eleanor suddenly remembered Rokurou’s little game.

Eizen had been sullen over the past day, quiet and withdrawn even when the rest of the group was engaged with something. It was harder for her to deal with than she had expected. He seemed to outright rebuff and ignore most attempts to cheer him up by direct means.

And there was an opportunity right in front of her. Here in this cramped little space, full of weapons of all kinds, Eleanor had found an oddity. She’d never seen a pair of swords like this, with their thin blades completely curved around at the ends. Was it worth a shot?

Eleanor took a deep breath, and asked her question. “Hey, Eizen. Do you know what kind of weapon these are?”

“Huh?” He put down a sword he had been inspecting and looked over. “Oh. Yeah.”

She waited for him to explain. He didn’t, so she tried again. “So… what are they?”

“They’re called hook swords.”

“Oh,” Eleanor said, frowning. Eizen didn’t seem to be taking the bait. “Do you have any idea how you’re supposed to use these?”

He grunted, turning back to the rest of the weaponry. “You can trip people with them.”

“Seriously? That seems like a really unusual way to use a sword.”

Eizen sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Eleanor, you’re not very subtle, you know that?”

Eleanor felt a blush spreading across her face. “What? What do you mean?”

“You’re trying to do that thing, aren’t you? I’m not in the mood.”

“You _know_?”

“Yeah, I _know_. So, you can stop trying to yank my chain, now.”

Eleanor fell silent as a crushing sense of guilt swamped her. She turned away, feeling a hollowness in her throat. Swallowing hard, she forced back the urge to cry. Eizen hadn’t even needed to raise his voice to upset her. She ran her hands over a beautiful halberd, not really seeing it, as she tried to wrestle her emotions back under control.

Her reverie was broken by a long sigh, and a warm hand clasping her shoulder. “Hey,” Eizen said softly. “It’s okay, alright? You know, I let Rokurou do it. He gets so hilariously smug every time he thinks it works on me. And it is kind of fun. I’m just… not up for it right now. But I know what you were trying to do. And it’s alright.”

Eleanor closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, relieved. “I’m - I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to… I just wanted to cheer you up a little.”

“Yeah, and I just took my bad mood out on you. I’m sorry, too.”

She looked up into his face, and found him smiling at her. Her blush returned, embarrassingly. “It’s okay. Are we good?”

Eizen nodded. He removed his hand from her shoulder, stepping back again. “Don’t tell Rokurou I know about his trick, would you? It’ll spoil all my fun.”

“Of course not!” Eleanor replied, starting to smile again as she rubbed her eyes. “Honestly, I feel a lot better about it knowing that you figured out his game. I won’t say a thing.”

“Good,” he said.

“How long have you known?”

“Honestly? Not as long as I would like. That sneaky daemon got away with pulling my pigtails for _way_ too long. But it’s not a big deal.” Eizen shrugged. He still seemed a little distant and sad, but whatever was bugging him did seem far away enough that he wasn’t completely closing himself off anymore. Eleanor decided she would be happy with that, and chuckled.

They started combing through the weapons again, but after a moment, Eizen spoke up once more. “By the way, those hook swords are kind of interesting. They’re a rare example of a weapon used mostly by civilians, rather than the military. I’ll tell you more about them some other time.”

Eleanor beamed. “Really? Maybe I’ll ask you about them sometime when Rokurou is around.”

Eizen gave her an easy nod. “Yeah, you do that.”

-

She did, later. Both Rokurou and Eizen turned to look at her immediately, both of them just a little too smug.

Boys, she thought affectionately. Eizen began to weave a remarkable tale about hook swords, the civilians who used them, and the distant northern land where they had come from, and Eleanor and Rokurou listened to every word.


End file.
